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There are several simple ways to get a good feel for what digital strategies your competition is utilizing.

First, google them. This seems obvious, but the SERP will tell you a great deal. First, I would google a few key terms that your site is going after and see what is naturally present for non-brand related terms. This will give you a good feel for what competitors are performing well for which keywords. You can also identify links associated with that site (via schema markups) that might help them take up a little more real estate in the top position. This information could include locations, hours, etc. that will appear below the main listing and can easily be added to the coding of your site (if it makes sense to do so).

You can also see what competitors are running paid search ads on these terms and then do a little research (via the Google AdWords keyword tool) to see what the search volume and avg CPC for those terms would be to determine if paid search would be a feasible strategy.

SEM Rush also has a good section of their site devoted to competitive analysis, it will give you a good sense of what sites are most competitive compared to your site based on keywords.

Once you have identified the competition, check out their site to see what they are doing. Pay attention to the content on the site, the site structure, and even meta information. Do they update blogs / news on the site on a regular basis? Does their site structure and navigation make sense? Are their title tags / meta descriptions unique and relevant to each page and contain relevant keywords where appropriate? Is the site technically sound from - proper redirects, 404 page, etc? What are they doing that your site isn't?

Open Site Explorer also has a handy feature where you can compare several URLs. It will give you information on how many links each site has and their authority so you can determine how your site falls compared to others.

Of course, you can't forget social. Do your competitors have a social presence on the networks that make sense? Do you? Do they have google local pages / G+ pages set up? Do you?

Every industry is different but this should give you a good starting point. Hope that helps!

First of all you need to know who you are dealing with. Many small websites might look quaint, but they are often thrown together and run by large organisations. Your Moz Analytics will help you quickly identify facts like this, but a quick look at the pages source code can also provide you with information that the analytics won't necessarily pick up.

You need to look at site authors, managers, addresses, etc and search for all of them on Google - Essentially its time to go to school on your competition. Every facet can be looked into and examined for clues on how best to exploit any advantages you might hold.

Most larger organisations lack the budget and tenacity to take on a determined digital marketer at a local level. It can be fairly easy to stand tall at national level with a hefty budget, but your local footprint is what serves you the biggest advantages in this arena. Multiple, Highly targeted pages will help you make the most of the long tail, and a focus on quality, freshness and authorship will keep your rankings strong across the board. But its time consuming, especially to begin with.

When you are competing with larger organisations, you can garner great information on what and who they are targeting most aggressively, but be warned - many businesses are just guessing and have no clue what or who they are "actually" targeting. You need to study your competitors but measure your own results, to build clarity on what works - and this will give you a far higher ROI than unwittingly copying a competitors mistakes.

PPC (pay per click) is another aspect of your marketing to consider, and again it is easy to get carried away with this, whilst neglecting your core SEO and SEM skill development and activities. Finding balance here is vital. Many of your competitors will be dabbling or relying on PPC campaigns and you can analyse ad copy and links etc to test in your own campaigns.

Dirty tracks are yet another thing you must be conscious of. Having a verified Google+ business page is important, and if you have been registered at other addresses or on other phone numbers, you should consider backtracking these and get the old details, deleted or amended. Always try to complete all profiles in full and post useful content that engages a response from your circles and not just a +1.

Pinterest and twitter are also great for content dissemination along with a blog. Make no mistake, your competitors will be watching and a few might even step up to the mark and try to duplicate your efforts. Be reassured though, "very few" competitors will be willing to put time in - money yes - but not time. If you have a passion for what you do - then extra investments of time creating great content can quickly fell or eclipse a larger competitors efforts.

In general there are so many tools out there to choose from that its hard say which is going to be best for every task. Tools are often used as a shortcut to success. But wins like this are often short lived - you have to narrow down a small number of tools that fit "your" needs best and then become really great at getting the most out them. This has been my own experience.

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